Essay
Go Back
Documentary
Hayya
Hayya is a documentary film developed collaboratively from the shared personal archive of filmmakers Nabila Rouabah and Julia Led spanning from 2017 to the present. Developed through their long-standing friendship, the film brings together footage, photographs and conversations recorded by both women over almost a decade.
Its title draws on the call in the adhan, Hayya ‘ala al-falah – “come to success” – and reflects the film’s interest in faith as an invitation that is gradually recognised and lived. The film follows Júlia’s developing relationship with Islam through WhatsApp voice notes, message screenshots, photographs and footage, alongside new reflections recorded in her own time.
Structured loosely through the five daily prayers, Hayya resists presenting conversion as a single dramatic rupture between a “before” and an “after”.
JULIA LED:
I tried to pray a week ago
It was nice but also had no idea what I was doing
NABILA ROUABAH:
Omg I am tearing up
No problem
It’s just about submission to God tbh
I feel like the equivalent is kind of like being held in your mums arms when you’re a kid
Instead, it shows how belief can form gradually through relationships, hospitality, conversation, place, uncertainty and ordinary life. Archival fragments are placed beside later reflections so that moments which once seemed incidental acquire new meaning in retrospect. The film remains intimate and observational, allowing pauses, imperfections, ambient sound and incomplete recordings to carry the texture of lived experience.
NABILA ROUABAH:
The most important thing in Islam beyond anything else is just accepting there’s one God and that Muhammad was his messenger
NR:
You just need one witness doesn’t have to be a full thing
JULIA LED:
I just feel like when I do it I will be pressured to change / be someone else and I know it’s not about that but that’s what’s taking me back
NR:
This is why it’s made easy where you only need one witness
NR:
You could just say it to nasro or even me if you need more time
NR:
Once you say it you’ll be saying it all the time ahah
JL:
But I don’t need to do it in the mosque with the imam?
NR:
No
JL:
Oh
Related Highlights
Essay
